Review: Taylor Made Minerals

Before Ordering: I had seen good recommendations for TM on a cosmetics forum, and even though the mmu repacking debate was gathering steam around that time, had not seen anything about TM being a possible repacker or selling dupes. I took this as a good sign and placed my first order.

What I Ordered: Samples of the following pigments: Anther, Bishop, Chantilly, Cypress, Eleanor, Envy, Ethereal, Fern, Foolish, Gale, Impact, Lime, Mission, Nude, and Throne.

Shipping Time: The order was placed on October 5th. I received a tracking number on October 13th, and the order itself arrived via First Class (US Postal Service) on October 17th. This was within the shipping timeframe posted at the time.

Packaging: I had ordered my samples in baggies, and they were packaged inside a slightly larger bag with a business card and a free sample clamshell of High Lite pigment. There was no included invoice (which is fine, saving paper is good), or written note (which isn’t fine, as a handwritten note or thank you makes a big positive impression on me). My order itself came in a plain, unpadded paper envelope. While this is fine for sample baggies, I do not know if TM uses padded envelopes, bubble wrap, or tissue paper for clamshell/jar orders.

Ingredients: There is an ingredients page on the site that lists pigment ingredients as one long “may contain.” The Approved Uses page gives a breakdown of the exact ingredients in each color. However, she seems to have some issues getting new colors added to this page; as of writing this (December 28th) she still has not added her November 2nd new colors to the list.

The Product: A picture is worth a thousand words.

Aromaleigh used to carry a Pure Hues line, which was sold as plain, unaltered micas at customer request. Pure Hues, to my knowledge, are TKB micas. I did not order any TM shades with the intent of comparing, and only discovered they were dupes after receiving my order.

Having said that, when swatching with my finger, Mission appears to blend a little easier, as if it has had some sort of base added, and Eleanor is slightly more yellow than Ozone, but otherwise I cannot find any difference between the products.

Out of the other colors I ordered, there are more issues. Lime applies quite sheer and not nearly as bright as it is in the bag, even when foiled, as if it is a pure mica with no binders/base added to it. Anther looks nothing like it does on Taylor Made’s site, and doesn’t even quite match the description; it is supposed to be a “deep, medium-hued green with medium-high shimmer” and it’s actually nearly identical to Fern in shade, and matte finish (again, like Fern) with some fine shimmer sparkles added.

Customer Service: A number of people started speaking up about Taylor Made’s status as a possible repacker around the time I received my order. Phyrra contacted TM directly about the issue, and this was the response she received:

Thank you for contacting us. We formulate all of our own pigments using base ingredients but we do matches based on customer request. This would be why there are several that exactly match those of some competitors. We try to offer the largest range of unique shades and in our effort to do this, we found that matching existing shades was inevitable. Customers can send in samples of shades that they would like matched and when we are able to get an accurate duplicate we provide in on the site and supply the requesting customer with a sample for approval. There are also times when we inadvertently create a color that a competitor already sells and vice versa. The beginning ingredients used in formulation of the pigments are fairly limited so duplicate shades happen all on their own.

Final Thoughts:

• Was I happy with my purchase? No.
• Would I order from Taylor Made again? Definately not.
• Rating? 1.5 out of 5 stars.

Be sure to check my follow-up on Taylor Made here, where I compare my order to TKB micas.

Edit: As of March 5th, 2010, Taylor Made has been added to my Companies I Avoid list. Please see the list for details.

~ by shatteredshards on December 28, 2009.